SHE'S ALIVE...ALIVE!!!!: a review of "Poor Things"

 

"POOR THINGS"
Based upon the novel Poor Things by Alasdair Grey
Screenplay Written by Tony McNamara
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
**** (four stars)
RATED R

This is why we go to the movies!!!!

Dear readers, of course we all understand that the movies are a form of escapism. A place to go to evade the pressures of life for at least 2 hours and fall into another world. But for me, as I have stated before upon this blogsite, at their absolute finest, the movies are unquestionably an art form in which a roomful of strangers can experience together, therefore, undertaking a shared journey directly into what could be considered as dreams due to their transportive nature combined with the imagery upon the silver screen. When a movie operates at its peak, the experience for me is the sort where I can almost forget that I am sitting inside of a movie theater and the film itself graduates from images conveyed through artistry and craftsmanship and becomes an experience that pulsates with life. The film exists as its own state of being. 

Yorgos Lanthimos' "Poor Things" is exactly the type of film that whisked me from reality into its own fantastical world while reflecting its orgiastic, propulsive vision back to our real world via a force that lifted me. It is an electric film starring a go-for-broke Emma Stone in her finest cinematic hour to date, it also represents Yorgos Lanthimos delivering his best work since the defiant, unforgiving satire and Orwellian surrealism of "The Lobster" (2016), itself a film I placed at #4 on my personal favorite films of the decade between 2010-2019. For me, "Poor Things" is not only equal to "The Lobster." It is not only 2023's top film. It is a work that sits in that rarefied air of Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert's "Everything Everywhere All At Once" (2022) as one of the best films of our current cinematic decade.   

Set in Victorian London, Yorgos Lanthimos' "Poor Things" weaves the tale of Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), the adult appearing yet developmentally infantized ward of the disfigured surgeon Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Upon taking on an assistant in medical student Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef), Godwin--whom Bella refers to as "God"--reveals that Bella is the result of his medical experiments as she was formed by harvesting the body of an impregnated young woman who had committed suicide, replacing her adult brain with the brain of the unborn child and then, re-animating her. 

The body of an adult woman powered by the gradually then rapidly developing brain of a child and further, Bella is studied by Max, who soon grows affection for her and wishes to marry her.  While  Bella accepts Max's proposal, she hungrily craves the freedom to explore and investigate the world beyond Godwin's mansion and grounds. Her desires are soon met by the arrival of attorney Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), with whom she has a tryst and soon abandons Dr. Godwin and Max and begins an odyssey that takes her across the continents and an evolution into her new self made existence socially, philosophically, intellectually, and sexually. 

Untethered to a past she cannot remember and societal rules and norms that are in essence meaningless, Bella Baxter's journey from infancy to liberation is a cinematic feast in Yorgos Lanthimos' "Poor Things." The production and audio visual landscape--presented superbly through Lanthimos's team including Cinematographer Robbie Ryan, Costume Designer Holly Waddington and Composer Jerskin Fendrix--suggests everything from the meticulousness of Wes Anderson films, the phantasmagorical surrealism of Terry Gilliam films combined with the art of Salvador Dali and Hieronymous Bosch and the clinical precision of Stanley Kubrick films while firmly extending the cinematic language developed by Lanthimos in past films, especially "The Lobster," which this film shares conceptual and thematic connective tissue.

Evoking Bella's world, which exists somewhere between dreams and the strands leading to the depths of nightmares, Lanthimos envisions his most rapturous and lushly presented landscape to date. I cannot stress enough, this is a HARD R rated film that is by turns grotesque, disturbing, occasionally gory, sexually graphic--dear readers, I cannot recall seeing a film this sexually extreme since Alfonso Cuaron's "Y Tu Mama Tambien" (2001)--and decidedly grim. 

That being said, it is also quite often very funny and I am also surprised as to how joyously playful it is! Nothing ever feels labored and everyone looks to be having a blast while building and existing in this impossible world!  And why not? Mark Ruffalo especially looks to be thrilled with being unleashed from the Marvel films for this stretch. Willem Dafoe extends far beyond what could have existed solely as a mad scientist role. From leading actors through supporting players, Yorgos Lanthimos is the filmmaker who treats his cast as they superlative gifts that they are and in turn gifts them with a story and characters they can run with. 

As with Yorgos Lanthimos' past films, there cannot be anything tentative in a film like this. You will either go with its flow or you will not. There is no middle ground.  With regards to the journey of "Poor Things," we are given something that is a blending of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus (published 1818) and Voltaire's Candide (1759)--which itself birthed Christian Marquand's vulgar, picaresque sex fueled travails in the awful "Candy"(1968) and did indeed pop into my mind as I watched--and through its conceits, conceptions, inspirations and surrealisms, Lanthimos conjured up a veritable wave of a film experience to ride and he found a champion to lead the way in Emma Stone. 

Emma Stone is a revelation, As Bella, she completely commits and delivers a fearless performance that is completely unfiltered or steeped in self conscious vanity or ego. Much like the film itself, Emma Stone is working in a state of being as Bella. I just didn't really see a performance, so to speak. As Bella, Emma Stone...simply...IS! For the first third of the film or so, during which Lanthimos presents in striking black and white cinematography, Bella is depicted as being in her infant/toddler/preschooler phase of life despite the adult female form she embodies. I instantly was taken aback by the sheer physicality of Stone's work as she truly appeared to be an infant from her facial expressions, vocalizations, and especially the movements of her limbs. Honestly, as someone who is surrounded by children every day in my real world role as a preschool teacher, Stone was pitch perfect! How she walked, tumbles, grabbed, ate and reacted to the world in which she is learning...for the second time, unbeknownst to her initially.

And certainly, that is the key to the character...the way in. How would she--or all of us, for that matter--interact with an existence that we do not and could not know? Emma Stone's brilliance is that she not only richly depicts how Bella is engaging the world she is investigating, her ability to transfer that feeling to us int he audience is paramount, for then, we are firmly inside of Bella's experiences, giving us the ability to potentially remember or to reflect or to even imagine what was this feeling like for the very first time.

When Bella masturbates for the first time, thus unlocking a sexual awakening and curiosity, that first moment...honestly, it almost felt as if Emma Stone was making that discovery for herself as authentically as she rendered the emotions! While this moment leads itself to hysterical sequences, we are also walking through the door with Bella to a rediscovering of her own womanhood ad complete self, which then gives the film progressively deeper layers of poignancy, pathos and even a moral rage at the world in which Bella--and all women--exist. But...most importantly, a world that Bella does not remember and so, it possesses no meaning. 

With the exception of perhaps the kindly Max, the men in the world of "Poor Things" all exist to attempt to mold Bella Baxter into whichever image they happen to deem and often to unsuccessful effect. For if the world is wholly anew to Bella, and she is operating as a child, Bella's world view exists completely through her own desires. If she wants it, then so be it. If she doesn't, also so be it. She is completely of her own mind and it is unchanged, even as it develops and expands with knowledge of the world as it works and how it exists through its unfairness, inequalities and horrors. 

Bella Baxter's formidable qualities are forged through her untainted innocence which becomes the world's upending sense of anarchy as she is unable of being manipulated or controlled and again, Emma Stone's outstanding work showcases this character at every developmental stage (which I am still marveling at how she pulled this feat off--as I am certain the film was shot out of sequence per the norm). 

All of this being stated, this does lead to what I am certain would be a powerful debate between viewers, especially within a 2023 where we live in a country where women are not allowed to have full agency over their own bodies. For what does it have to take to have that agency...to be free? How should we feel about Bella's pilgrimage or sense of liberation? Is it liberation if a woman needs to live, commit suicide and be re-animated with the mind of a baby to experience the world all over again to finally claim the agency she should morally possess at birth? It is impossible for one film to contain an actual answer to that question but it is presented and it exists for us to question and debate as we drink up every moment that Yorgos Lanthimos elicits.

And again, this is exactly what the movies are for!!! Not disposable, forgettable visual baubles to never fully digest. Yorgos Lanthimos' "Poor Things" takes the eternal coming of age story yet injects a creepiness that bridges Grimm's fairy tales to body horror and still emerges through to the other side with a life affirming vibrancy and vivaciousness that celebrates the sense of discovery that is inherent with living life. 

There is nothing here that is disposable or remotely forgettable. Yorgos Lanthimos' "Poor Things" is grand, exhilarating, rapturous cinema. 

HAPPY 14TH BIRTHDAY TO SAVAGE CINEMA!!!!!

 

I am learning how to be more gentle with myself. 

I am learning how to re-create my own sense of happiness. 

I am learning to try and accept when changes happen knowing that everything cannot remain exactly the same forever. 

I am learning these things and so much more, especially today as Savage Cinema reaches its 14th birthday.

Dear readers, it was 14 years ago, as I sat in my parents' Chicago home basement, when this blogsite was born and I hit "PUBLISH" for the very first time. And once this posting is published, I would have performed this feat 856 times...and to that accomplishment, I should see it  as the accomplishment that it is...and I should be able to hold some pride in this accomplishment.

As I have written about over these last four years, and as you can witness from the decreased pace of new postings, Savage Cinema has slowed down due to personal, mental health issues which arose during the pandemic as well as how the movie industry itself has changed since the pandemic, from the types of movies being shown in theaters, to my home base of Madison, WI  losing essentially every movie theater we had ever since my arrival in this city 36 years ago.

Yet, I still love and believe in the art and artistry of the movies. And in doing so, I still love writing about them and I need to rediscover that belief in my abilities with writing about the movies, even if my output has slowed or if my confidence has waned due to my out put slowing. A vicious cycle...

Yet, through everything, year and year, you have been there for me when new postings arrive and I thank you. I thank you for your support, for your faith, for you just sending me any words at all showing me that you have read what I have written and messages have been received. 

It has existed for so long that it feels foolish to end it now...even if postings do not arrive as quickly or as frequently as in ears past. And here is where I need to be gentle with myself.

Every review written and posted is an accomplishment, it is a victory. Every single one. I need to claim ownership of this truth...plus the most important one...

I am a writer and this is my art. And I am still a writer and this is still my art even when I am not producing anything or if I go quiet. As I am gentle with myself, I remain grateful to all of you who have ever been with me upon this journey. I don't wish to write in a vacuum for I have always wanted this space to be a point to start conversations about the movies and the subject matter contained within them. 

My thankfulness is as bottomless as always. Thank you for allowing me to reach 14 years of this endeavor. 

I hope that you will remain with me for even more.    

KNOCK, KNOCK: a review of "Leave the World Behind"

 

"LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND"
Based upon the novel Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam
Written For The  Screen and Directed by Sam Esmail
**1/2 (two and a half stars)
RATED R

At the beginning of this year, I went to a screening of Writer/Director M. Night Shyamalan's "Knock At The Cabin," an apocalyptic thriller based upon the novel The Cabin At The End Of The World by Paul G. Tremblay. I, unfortunately, did not write a full review of that film at the time. But in short, I was deeply impressed by Shyamalan's vision, perhaps his darkest to date, as he wove the tale of a family upon a vacation in the remote titular cabin being visited, and then taken hostage, by four strangers--led by the hulking Dave Bautista, in a terrific performance--proclaiming that the end of the world is nigh and to cease the apocalypse, the captured family would have to sacrifice one of their own. 

It was a wise and grim interior drama, during which we were unsure if the threat to the world's annihilation was either true or the product of insane delusions by the captors. Reminiscent of Writer/Director Jeff Nichols' grueling "Take Shelter" (2011), another, and wholly excellent, film where the lines between individual psychological breakdown and global extinction intersect and clash, Shyamalan improved upon past weaker efforts like his production of "Devil" (2010) and his previous directorial effort "Old" (2021) and created what felt to be a strong cousin to his superior "Signs" (2002) as his careful attention to character and all of their internalized nightmares threatened to make contact with existential ones. 

So, I do find it telling that as we reach the end of this year, we find ourselves with another film where a a vacationing family is suddenly confronted with strangers and the potential end of the world with Writer/Director Sam Esmail's "Leave The World Behind," his adaptation of the Ramaan Aman novel. Unlike what Shyamalan presented with "Knock At The Cabin" and aside from the pedigree of talent on display, Esmail has delivered a decidedly disturbing yet peculiar film which works for sections while becoming shakier during others, ultimately growing to a climax that did leave me swinging between a sense of despair and...a dismissive "meh." It was a most as if it was afraid of it own subject matter when we really needed to take that swan dive into Hell. 

"Leave The World Behind" stars Julia Roberts as the misanthropic Amanda Sandford, who impulsively arranges for a weekend getaway with her husband Clay (Ethan Hawke) and two teenaged children--Archie (Charlie Evans) and the "Friends" obsessed Rose (Farrah Mackenzie)--to a remote rental home in Long Island.

Upon arrival, all is not quiet as Amanda takes notice of a neighbor named Danny (Kevin Bacon) stocking up on supplies at a town grocery store. The TV and Wi-Fi signals are inoperable. The sudden presence of deer arrive in the backyard. And on a trip to a nearby beach, the family escapes the from the crash of an oil tanker washing ashore. 

And then, late in the evening, after the kids have gone to bed, there is a knock upon the door...

Enter the elegant, tuxedo clad George H. Scott otherwise known as "G.H." (an excellent Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Myha'la), proclaiming to be the owners of the house and have returned home for shelter due to a blackout in New York City. Amanda is skeptical, to say the least, while Clay is more welcoming and allows G,H, and Ruth to stay for the night.

I feel this is just enough plot description that I can reveal without inadvertently producing spoilers and of course, if you are going to see tis film, I wish for you to experience it as unencumbered as possible. That said, it is not a spoiler to reveal that the potential of the apocalypse is a more than turbulent plot point as well as discovering if the validity to the identities of G.H. and Ruth play out or not. Ultimately,  Sam Esmail devises a film that is effective for many extended stretches, creating a chilling atmosphere that provides a telling reminder to a period of time and I am more than certain that we would like to forget.

In the months before the Covid-19 lockdown and the full arrival of the life altering pandemic, I vividly remember that life was feeling just as it is presented in the movies and the eerie mirroring was unsettling. I remember first hearing the news of this mysterious virus, first overseas and sooner than we could imagine, it was here in the United States. I remember taking one of my frequent trips to Walgreens to find people stocking up on paper towels and toilet paper, anchored by people's  movements which were indeed more frantic and panicked in their intent. I remember being in my classroom, hearing reports about how the virus made its arrival upon the nearby college campus, notifications of school closings not far behind and Friday, March 6, 2020 serving as the last day of school before the inevitable lockdown became official.  

Constantly watching the news reports which repeatedly confirmed that no one really knew anything about the virus and how to protect oneself, or if we could protect ourselves. The anxieties growing due to the uncertainties. The odd sense of relief felt when I, an introvert, did not have to leave the house for anything or interact with anyone except until the times when I did...and the anxieties contained in survival ratcheted upwards greatly. Then, the death tolls. And more and more death tolls. 

I could go on and on but I am hoping that this short recap was able to snap you back directly into your own feelings during this period, feelings I think that Sam Esmail's "Leave The World Behind" tap into with clean, dark effectiveness. That feeling of the dark unknown, that creeping doom which arrives, seemingly without warning, upending you from life as you already know it to be is firmly etched in how we are presented into the lives of Amanda, Clay and their children. 

What follows throughout the remainder of the film also mirrors our time with Covid from the distrust of each other and how Science became politicized and then, weaponized to make everyone in conflict with each other against empirical truths and more urgently, basic tools (i.e. a piece of cloth to wear over our mouths and noses) needed in order to help each other stay alive. For if Covid was to be the end of us, it really wouldn't have been the pandemic to wipe us out. The pandemic would have been the catalyst. Our distrust of each other, our selfishness, our ignorance and how far we are willing to go for self preservation at the full expense of anyone who happens to disagree...that would end us all. This is an aspect to "Leave The World Behind" that succeeds and fails. 

We never truly know how we would react within facing a crisis until that crisis actually happens and Esmail provides a more than perceptive take as each characters' reactions and behaviors reveals something already present within them individually, whether desirable or not. I especially enjoyed watch Ethan Hawke's performance as Clay as we see what a life of privilege, adult gadget driven, fully untested, and being an insular academic can do and mean if the world is indeed falling apart. 

In some respects, he reminded me a little of Dustin Hoffman's pacifist, academic character in Director Sam Peckinpah's ruthless, rapacious "Straw Dogs" (1971), as Clay could be a study of the inattentive, ineffective, overly cerebral, so-called emasculated 21st century males as compared to the more decisive characters portrayed by Mahershala Ali and Kevin Bacon. Hawke impressed me most during his final scenes where his self-revelations arrive in a verbal wellspring of shame and sad resignation and wisely, Esmail provides no sense of omniscient judgement. Yes, I do believe that Esmail could have probed further but this was one of the areas in which the film was indeed more successful upon an internal level

One area where it fails crucially and most obviously, is at its most provocatively central relationships, notably between G.H. and Ruth against Amanda, who proclaims at the film's outset, "I fucking hate people."

Certainly, it would not be unfair of Amanda to be suspicious of G.H. and Ruth with their unexpected arrival. But, that being said, and again, as we know from the beginning, Amanda does indeed hate people. Yet, in her exchanges with G.H. and Rose, she really hates Black people, apparent from the slew of microaggressions Amanda hurls their way and that Ruth recognizes immediately. OK, all of this is fair but I felt that if Sam Esmail was going to approach this particular arena, then, go for it! Which means, do not introduce a subject that you are afraid to tackle and therefore, take to the wall explicitly. 

This particular quality made "Leave The World Behind" feel to be inauthentic as it felt to be to aware of the mainstream audience watching and not wanting to really upset anyone by having Julia Roberts say truly reprehensible things...especially as we still need to be on her side throughout. Yes, Roberts gives a good performance but I know she is capable of so much more and just imagine what she could have done if the script allowed Amanda to get as ugly as she is being implied. 

Additionally, there are more aesthetic qualities to "Leave The World Behind" that kept pulling me out of the film just when it needed me to plunge deeper. Poor CGI moments, unconvincing stand offs, really questionable and shoe-horned usages of profanity from the younger characters and  Esmail's needlessly acrobatic camera movements that swirl, circle, turn images completely sideways and for what? There is more than enough inherent drama and tension within the story itself and dexterous cinematography hurt more than it helped, especially when quite a lot of the film carried its share of striking, disturbing imagery (including one near the film's conclusion that was truly sobering), including the ambiguous ending that kinda...sorta...lands...maybe?

Sam Esmail's "Leave The World Behind" is a well meaning effort that just never trusts itself enough to delve as deeply and as darkly as it really needs to go in order to be one for the ages. Yet, as it stands, I do have to give it credit for being more than a cautionary tale and existing more as an explicit warning to a divided world that only needs to remain together to ensure its continuity.

For 2024 is almost here...and it is going to be a rough one.

ALONE TOGETHER AT CHRISTMAS: a review of "The Holdovers"

 

"THE HOLDOVERS"
Screenplay Written by David Hemingson
Directed by Alexander Payne
**** (four stars)
RATED R

"It's coming on Christmas
They're cutting down trees
They're putting op reindeer

And singing songs of joy and peace
Oh, I wish I had a river

I could skate away on..."
-"River"
Joni Mitchell

The deep melancholy of the holiday season cannot be overstated.

Whether bittersweet and sublime or otherwise filled with crippling despair, the holiday season, especially during final two weeks of the year, are considerably fraught with levels of sadness as the end of a year signifies times of reflection and often regrets, combatting the joyousness which often feels aggressive. Even at its most exciting and festive, Christmas Day itself can often feel like a running sand timer as we all realize that even this day, just like all others, will invariably end, leading into the next day which resets the sand timer for another full year of waiting for the day to arrive again.  

My own feelings towards the holidays have cycled through all of these emotions, with Christmas Days over my lifetime swaying from beautiful to painful to hectic and as of this year, peacefully quiet. But what has been ever present is the seasonal melancholy, which arrives in forms ranging from the end of the semester school cycle, with all of its pressures and temporary goodbyes to the arrival of New Year's Eve, where those aforementioned reflections and regrets speak their loudest directly alongside the hopes that the mistakes and failures of the year refuse to rise again in the next year. For all of the family expectations, visitations and means of togetherness, it is somehow, at least for me, an increasingly insular time where interior mediations about who I have been and what I hope to become continue to merge and clash, and always leaving me feeling emotionally adrift wondering if everything will, at long last, ever click into place.  

Alexander Payne's "The Holdovers" is a masterfully textured, empathetic, quiet snow globe of a film that encapsulates the seasonal melancholy brilliantly. It is undeniably his finest film since "The Descendants" (2011), beautifully reuniting his cinematic storytelling with Paul Giamatti, who starred in what may be Payne's best film, "Sideways" (2004). Furthermore, it is exactly the type of film that has not been en vogue for several years now due to the suffocating prevalence of superheroes and other franchised properties as it is a slice of life film about human beings attempting to navigate life as best as possible. Certainly, in and of itself, this quality does not great film make. But, Alexander Payne and his team do their finest to mine the human comedy and tragedy within the film's core characters making them relatable and therefore, memorable. "The Holdovers" is not solely memorable. It is one of 2023's very best films.   

Set in New England during December 1970, Alexander Payne's "The Holdovers" stars Paul Giamatti as Paul Hunham, an embittered, strict History teacher at Barton boarding school, the same school he once attended on scholarship. Disliked by students and faculty members alike--save for the kind school office administrator Lydia Crane (Carrie Preston)--due to his seemingly archaic views on education and academic integrity in a world of silver spoon students and legacy donors. 

Paul is forced into remaining at Barton during the school's two week Winter break to chaperone the "holdovers," students remaining on campus who are unable to reunite with families for the holidays, including his bright yet deeply acerbic student and therefore, nemesis, Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa). Also remaining behind at Barton is cafeteria administrator and head chef Mary Lamb (Da'Vine Joy Randolph), grieving the death of her son and Barton graduate, killed in the Vietnam war. 

With nowhere to go and required to be in each other's company when none of them would choose to be together, the trio navigates the seemingly endless two week holiday period in cojoined solitude while also gradually finding new connections and understandings as they confront their private traumas and their approaching futures in the new year of 1971.

If you remember, or if you are not familiar, I invite you to please take some minutes to listen to Joni Mitchell's wintry ballad "River" from her album "Blue" (released June 22, 1971) and referenced at the outset of tis review. Once you listen, or remember, you will gather a perfect sense of the kind of film Alexander Payne's "The Holdovers" aspires to be and what I feel it reaches. Payne beautifully captures the exquisite sadness of the holiday season, the very kind that exists within that muffled snowfall silence, the low, slow breaths that escape from our mouths and the hurts that haunt our hearts and heads 

Upon seeing the vintage studio logos at the film's outset and followed by the vintage opening credit design, Payne effectively evoked a film that was to look, sound and feel like a work from the time period in which his story exists, something very close to say Director Hal Ashby's "Harold and Maude" (1971). In fact, the entire production design, from locations, sets, hairstyles, music, and most notably, the visual sheen from Cinematographer Elgil Bryld, is meticulous. In fact, the authenticity to the re-creation of 1970 felt as ingenious as the detail found in Writer/Director Richard Linklater's 1976 themed "Dazed and Confused" (1993), again making his film feel like it was an artifact from the time period instead of a film set within a certain time period. 

By the same token, Alexander Payne accomplishes a similar feat as achieved in Writer/Director Kelly Fremon Craig's lovely "Are You There God, It's Me Margaret?" her adaptation of the 1970 set Judy Blume novel, in which while firmly stationed in the past, it is a work that mirrors and comments upon the concerns of the present, a tactic Payne's protagonist of Paul Hunham himself would be thrilled by due to his love of history and how it also relates to the here and now. 

The beauty of Alexander Payne's "The Holdovers" burrows far deeper than any cinematic aesthetics. With David Hemingson's wonderful screenplay as its base and fueled by excellent performance from the entire cast, Payne's direction--just as with his finest films--remains ever sensitive, observant and unforced. Not one moment ever feels prefabricated, all of the drama is inherent and never needs any additional heft. "The Holdovers," especially during this point in relatively mainstream cinema, is a film that breathes.

I have noticed that despite the acclaim for the film, there has been some criticism that Payne is not immune to a handful of cliches. Well...I guess that I can see that point as there is nothing new to themes of discovering that the similarities between individuals tend to outweigh the differences or that in the grand scheme, we all truly need each other in order to navigate the world and ourselves. But, quite often what feels like cliches are moments of sincere, honest truth for if we really did just take a few moments to listen, to feel, to metaphorically walk in another's shoes, where would our understanding and therefore, empathy for each other be or extend towards?

Alexander Payne's "The Holdovers" is a film about emotional isolation which is compounded by being physically isolated from more desired locales, from family, to even our own most private wishes for oneself. In doing so, any sense of cliche is erased as the focus is firmly riveted to the primary trio of characters who populate the story and we witness how they confront themselves as much as each other, how they ask extremely difficult questions of themselves, and arrive at individualized crossroads where either life might change or it will remains painfully stagnant. Everything plays out against this backdrop of the holiday season and this visually bitter winter grey scale, where the cold hit your bones and the snow remains ever present, blindingly white and seemingly with the intent of warding away any other season for good. 

Payne captures the emotional truths over and again with a complete lack of maudlin or overly sentimentalized presentation often providing echoes to the boarding school blues and adult/teenage male relationships of Writer/Producer John Hughes and Director Peter Faiman's "Dutch" (1991) Director Martin Brest's "Scent Of A Woman" (1992), Wes Anderson's "Rushmore" (1998) and "The Royal Tenenbaums" (2001) and unquestionably, the annual holiday loneliness contained in "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (1965).

As previously stated, all of the performances, from top to bottom, are excellent. As Mary, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, demonstrated the range of her abilities as I remember first seeing her in what was the Jack Black role on the television streaming adaptation of "High Fidelity" (2020). Admittedly, the role does feel to be a tad underwritten but even so, Randolph plumbed some significant depths of not only being a Mother in mourning but also the high wire act of being a working class Black Mother mourning within the White space of a wealthy New England all male boarding school. The difficulties of showing her true face in such a space and furthermore, to whom, which makes her friendship with Paul Hunham so telling as they are both outcasts. 

The heart and soul of the film rests in the relationship between Angus and Paul. As Angus Tully, Dominic Essa--in his debut screen performance, no less--is marvelous and more than holds against his own alongside the formidable Paul Giamatti. Resembling a young, yet more gangly Tom Hanks, Sessa richly captures the outer shell of teenage swagger and venom while deftly illuminating the wounded, forgotten child inside, discarded once again within a damaged family that we wonder if they ever wanted him in the first place. 

To eventually be heard and seen by a figure like Paul Hunham is palpable as Paul, throughout the trajectory of his life on multi-levels revealed throughout the film, feels to have been discarded by life itself and so, he engulfs himself in the world where he felt happiest yet for seemingly decades, even his happy place has lost its luster. Paul Giamatti completely elevates what could have existed as nothing more than a sad sack, and through his expertise, brings his character to vivid, painfully aware, richly melancholic life with such pain and grace, making him perhaps a distant relative to whom he portrayed in "Sideways." 

Paul Hunham, like the film itself, is a throwback. A man who firmly believes in the ideals instilled in him by his schooling and has, in turn, applied those very lessons into all areas of his life. Yet now, as an adult, in a world that cares not for what it proclaims to teach but rewards the undeserved for no other reason than wealth, notoriety, family legacies and hefty donations, integrity be damned. To being confronted with a world, over and again, that runs as a counterpoint to what he was taught to believe, it has upended him to the point of emotional and developmental paralysis. 

If Angus, in some ways represents Paul's past self when the future felt to be so unwritten and Paul is a representation of Angus' future should he consume himself with his own disappointments, traumas and failings, their union throughout "The Holdovers," is a crucial duet (especially for Angus with the realities of Vietnam looming in the background) where each of them are given the opportunities to realize that life is not set in stone, and regardless of what has occurred and the pains of what is, the future is still unwritten and neither of them are literally men out of time. 

If we really took the time. Just took a little time to try and see each other, then would we ever have to feel ourselves as being truly alone in the universe, especially when we house troubles and regrets that are indeed universal? Alexander Payne's "The Holdovers" argues that no one ever wishes to feel this way themselves, and nor should anyone...especially during the holidays.